FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   450   451   452   453   454  
455   456   457   458   459   460   461   462   463   464   465   466   467   468   469   470   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   >>   >|  
f the room which he is in, to make sure of being alone, and of being followed by no one. These precautions are important; they give no trouble, and they inspire confidence--besides, they may really save your life. You should establish these habits immediately end permanently; You ought not to be obliged to have resource to them on some emergency, which would hurt the feelings of those around you. Do not trust only to your own experience. The Neapolitan character has been violent in every age, and you have to do with a woman [Queen of Naples] who is the impersonation of crime" (Napoleon to Joseph, May 31, 1806.--Du Casse, tome ii. p. 260).]-- At this time, when the ambition of Bonaparte every day took a farther flight, General Clarke took it into his head to go into the box of the First Consul at the "Francais," and to place himself in the front seat. By chance the First Consul came to the theatre, but Clarke, hardly rising, did not give up his place. The First Consul only stayed a short time, and when he came back he showed great discontent at this affectation of pride and of vanity. Wishing to get rid of a man whom he looked on as a blundering flatterer and a clumsy critic, he sent him away as charge d'affaires to the young extemporized King of Etruria, where Clarke expiated his folly in a sort of exile. This is all the "great disfavour" which has been so much spoken about, In the end General Clarke returned to favour. Berlin knows and regrets it. On the 25th of March of the same year England signed, at Amiens, a suspension of arms for fourteen months, which was called a treaty of peace. The clauses of this treaty were not calculated to inspire the hope of a very long peace. It was evident, as I have already said, that England would not evacuate Malta; and that island ultimately proved the chief cause of the rupture of the treaty of Amiens. But England, heretofore so haughty in her bearing to the First Consul, had at length treated with him as the Head of the French Government. This, as Bonaparte was aware, boded well for the consolidation of his power. At that time, when he saw his glory and power augmenting, he said to me in one of our walks at Malmaison, in a moment of hilarity, and clapping me on the shoulder, "Well, Bourrienne, you also will be immortal!"-- "Why, General?"--"Are you not my secretary?"--"Tell me the name of Alexander's," said I. --[Bonaparte did not know t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   450   451   452   453   454  
455   456   457   458   459   460   461   462   463   464   465   466   467   468   469   470   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Consul

 

Clarke

 

England

 
Bonaparte
 

General

 
treaty
 

inspire

 
Amiens
 

months

 
expiated

Etruria

 
extemporized
 
clauses
 
called
 

regrets

 
Berlin
 

favour

 

returned

 

signed

 
suspension

spoken

 

fourteen

 
disfavour
 

hilarity

 

moment

 

clapping

 

shoulder

 

Malmaison

 

consolidation

 

augmenting


Bourrienne

 

Alexander

 

secretary

 
immortal
 

island

 

ultimately

 
proved
 

evacuate

 
evident
 

rupture


treated

 
French
 

Government

 
length
 

heretofore

 

haughty

 
bearing
 

calculated

 

feelings

 

emergency